Thanksgiving Feast!

Hello,

So things this week were awesome. We spent a lot of our time preparing for Thanksgiving!! But to back track a bit, President is always telling us to have Family Home Evenings and ward activities, so we’ve been preparing to have a día de acción de gracias mainly because there are 4 gringos/Americans in our ward. And we all love food! We couldn't do it in the church because there’s no kitchen so we all went to this Hermanas house in the other side of our ward. She has a huge house. So we got there and this is exactly what happened my comp left with Elder Warrick (our trainers) to make pies at their house and left Elder Brophy with me to make the green beans, two other pies, a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and some other vegetables. Now I understand why moms are so stressed when they cook. Wow! It was hard, but we made it! It was an awesome Thanksgiving we even played real football.

Other than that we got the news today that Plan Piloto is going to all of South America. I haven’t talked about Plan Piloto very much, but it’s a special plan to help the missionaries focus in three things reactivate, reatain, and baptise all the less active members. We use a book called El Rescate, it has all the jobs of all the ward members and their responsibilities to help you with the list of everyone in the ward. So you guys can understand in Stake Conference the other week, President said that only 13 percent of the member in our stake are active. Pretty shocking numbers.

Anyway, love you guys,

Elder Marcus Walker

Christmas it too close¡!¡! I’m really worried about the christmas call. There is too much pressure. When I think about it I just tear up. 

Hello Again!

Dear everyone,

So this last week was good, a little slow because we had Stake Conference, and we had to get my companion’s visa extended and other stuff. So we didn't spend much time in our sector, which is a little hard. To get my Comps visa, we went into Santiago and after spending the day there we decided to grab some food. Long story short we were in this giant bus station and we found a Taco Bell, and I went up there to order. I started to try to order the same thing I get at home, which is 2 Beefy 5 layer burritos and a crunch wrap supreme. But they didn’t have a menu, and I had to describe them in Spanish which was really funny. My comp and I were laughing so hard. In the end, they didn't have the burritos, but they did have a crunch wrap supreme, at least. It was awesome.

With our investigators, we’re progressing really well with Kimberly and as for Jose we had a lesson and told him that we couldnt baptize him with his job (since he has to work on Sunday and can’t come to church.) Since then, he has been really busy and we haven't seen him. That’s been hard, but just keep swimming, right? We know that he is ready but it’s complicated with this new job. His job is pretty cool though he’s a life guard at this water park that’s actually kind of big. 
     
In my scriptures this past week I was reading in Alma in his counsel to his sons Heleman, Shiblon, and Corianton. Wow! His counsel is so good! Something that I really liked was Alma’s comparison of the scriptures to the Liahona at the end of chapter 37. I like how they both work according to your faith and diligence and how easy it is for us like the children of Lehi to neglect what is right in front of us. It talks about how easy it is to hear the words of Christ which show us the way to eternal life, if we’ll just pay attention. Anyway, go read it Alma 37:38-46 

I love you all, but I love Chloe and Mare the most this week because they had their birthdays!!

Elder Walker

PS. I want some Cliff bars in my birthday package, and if you can an electronic Spanish dictionary for when I don't have Elder Brown.

Elder Brown and his posteridad.

Kimberly had a birthday.

Members gave us these sick hats.

Best Week Yet

Bueno, Hello Ladies and Gents,

In terms of my weeks in the mission, last week had to be one of my best. My Dad let me know last week that I need to write more stuff to my mom, so I've been keeping a list of things that happened this week. First, I’ll talk about the funny things, and then I will talk about some spiritual things. 

About the funny stuff—I want to explain a little bit about where I'm living, and I'm not complaining—this is all stuff I think is funny about living here. I live in Isla de Maipo with my companion Elder Brown and with another companionship, an Elder from Uruguay who's training Elder Bradley, and for the last 4 weeks our toilet hasn't had a lid. It makes it pretty brutal sometimes because you have to squat. Believe me you have to find some courage to use the bathroom in the mornings. Where we live is pretty nice, and it’s a house, but just the bathroom is bad. It’s always wet. (I won't say any more about that.) We work in the Islita de Maipo, which is a little bit away, but we have bikes like I've already said, and I've had so many bugs fly in my mouth and face its ridiculous. In our ward we have two other missionaries (Warrick and Brophy), and they're awesome! Last week this kid named Nico came over to their house during personal study. Elder Warrick told him that he had to leave because they have things to do, and long story short he got mad threw eggs at their house, then he went home and took his medication. Later that day he apologized and offered them almuerzo. They went over to his house to eat some pasta, and he ended up going to all the lessons that day, which was awesome. So yeah, random stuff like that happens on the mission. We have a facebook page bty Mom, Rama La Islita. 

About the spiritual things—some things have been changing with me. I read this talk a little over a week ago that my comp. has (and mom I want you to send me a copy if you can) called “The 4th Missionary.” It breaks missionaries down into 4 groups. The first one is unworthy, gets the MTC or in the field feels guilty or unhappy, and goes home. The second one is also unworthy and gets out to the mission field and can’t do anything but think about home and all the good things that he left, but he ends up staying and being a problem his whole mission. But the 3rd and 4th missionary are practically the same. They serve for a full two years and baptize people, reactivate people, and from the outside both are awesome missionaries but inside the 3rd missionary isn't happy. He gets happiness from the numbers and from comparison, and he also can never forget about the life he left and all the good things he left at home. He conforms his will but he does it grudgingly and doesn’t change. He's doing what he should, but what he should do isn't what he WANTS to do and for that he isn't happy. And it’s pretty harsh because it quotes in Moroni 7 which says: “For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift [two years], or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing. For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness. For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.” I added the [two years]. This hit me so hard because that was me the first three months of my mission, and I could serve two years like that and literally receive nothing. I’ve prayed every day that I’ll want to be here more for a pure desire than for the responsibility/duty. I’ve prayed to love the people more completely as a way to be more like Jesus and as a way to show my love for Heavenly Father. I’ve changed. That doesn’t mean I don't have bad days, but as I have given God my desires, I have been so happy. I don’t just want to work as missionaries do, I want to be a missionary in my heart and mind and every part of me.

And now a little bit on Elder Nelson (eeek I don't have much time) so I met him, I shook his hand and he talked to us. It was the first time that I've seen a general authority speak since the then Elder Monson spoke forever ago at a Boy Scouts thing. He and his wife were amazing. They talked about the plan of salvation, but obviously in a lot deeper way for missionaries.  Sister Nelson talked about the plan of salvation pretty much said that when we have those really hard days if we could see ourselves in the pre-mortal life we would know with a perfect knowledge that we could do it. She also said that we were preordained to do a whole list of things, and one of those things was go on a mission. She also said that when were not doing those things on that list we feel like there’s something missing and when we are doing what’s on the list we feel peace and confidence. I think that applies to our investigators, obviously, and with ourselves when we’re following the commandments. I think that we have to be working on those things even in the mission achieving more because that’s what God has planned. Elder Neslon talked about the Abrahamic covenant. I learned so much it was funny though, because right in the middle he was just stopped and started talking about marriage and how we have to marry someone like the mission presidents’ wives and then continued. It was an amazing experience. 

Okay, I hope that was enough Mom, and even though I’ve got some other stuff to say my eyes are kinda going bad from writing too much, so I’m done.

Love you, 
Elder Walker

Mom, I'm happy, I just want you to know that. Also, that I'm not starving!! Haha. 

Impressive Tan Lines

Hey guys!! 

So this past week was pretty hot, and yes the golf tan lines are coming back nicely but now I’ve got a collar tan line. haha. It’s cookin' down here, but that keeps us motivated to teach lessons. I had two division last week one with Elder Alanso and one with Elder Brophy. Elder Alanso is pretty awesome. He’s from Mexico, and this is his last sector he was in my sector before so a lot of people knew him. Elder Brophy and I are pretty close now, and we spend almost all of our time together on the mission. This time we went to his sector. It’s always fun to be with the greenies. 

We had another great lesson with José this week, and he is so ready to be baptized. He’s been our investigator the whole time that I've been here, and i always look forward to our lessons. This week we had a practice baptism interview, and we talked about how he want to baptized, how excited he is, and how he wants to learn more and be active in the church. It was hard because after he said that, he got a job opportunity working and the mini water park place and the hours are really strict and as of now he would end up working on Sundays. It’s hard because he and we don't want him to get baptized this week and then go inactive. We told him to ask his boss if he could have Sundays off. We re still hopeful that hell get baptized. We had a lesson with Valentina who we baptized about 3 weeks ago and she's doing great. It's interesting because now were trying to reactivate her aunt and her dad. There are so many inactives!! We talked to her dad and about the importance of testimonies and obeying the commandments. 

Anyway, I love it here Chileans are awesome and always joking around! I don't always get what they’re saying, but that’s when you just have to laugh anyway. It’s weird to think that the time difference is 5 hours now. I’m literally living in the future. haha.

Elder Brown and I are trucking along and had a good week. We found a lot of new investigators. This week is going to be awesome because we have a member of the quorum of the 12 coming to speak to us. Elder Nelson is coming!! The assistants have sent out some pretty strict messages about how we have to look are absolute best in our best suits (cleaned), shoes shined, and our hair cut within the week. It just goes to show how special this opportunity is and how sacred prophets are. We’re supposed to come with questions with the promise that he will answer them. That’s super awesome and I’m excited. Love and peace out!


Elder Walker